Big Smith & Blue Mountain at The Bottleneck

(Lawrence, Kansas) Tammy and I are hanging out in Lawrence, Kansas this weekend. We are here to fulfill her New Years resolution to see Big Smith play again. It’s been about 10 years since she saw them last, and I’ve never seen them. After scouring their tour schedule she saw that the best option for us was a weekend trip bookended with 7 hours on the Interstate to Lawrence. As an added treat, they played with Blue Mountain. I’ve got three Blue Mountain albums and really like their music.

We drove down to Lawrence on Friday going through rain the entire way. We made it with an hour to spare to get checked into our hotel and walk over to The Bottleneck where the show was. The venue was great. Nice sound, big open area for dancing.

Blue Mountain is on a reunion. They split up in 2001 and decided to pack it in. However, in November they reunited and put the band back together! They put on a great show. It was almost entirely comprised of their existing catalog of old songs given the bands recent reformation. That was fine with me, it was a great walk through memory lane.

After Blue Mountain’s hourlong set Big Smith started to pile onto the stage. Pile is the correct word since there are 6 of them in the band. Big Smith is a family band. All the members of the band are 1st cousins. As they highlighted for us, that means they all have the same grandparents. Big Smith then proceeded to absolutely tear the place down for 2 hours and 15 minutes.

I’m pretty sure that we had no choice but to travel this far south to see Big Smith. I think the northern nature of Minnesota would have put some mojo on the foot stomping and clapping.

I had an absolutely great time whooping it up with everyone else. Halfway through Big Smith’s set I couldn’t help but get out on the dance floor and start stomping and clapping with everyone else. Hillbilly music at its finest!

If I only had a pair of overalls! Make sure to read Tammy’s write-up from the night as well!